www.railfan.com/departures


www.railfan.com FOUNDING PUBLISHER


HAROLD H. CARSTENS (1925-2009)


PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER HENRY R. CARSTENS


VICE PRESIDENT JOHN A. EARLEY EDITOR


E. STEVEN BARRY


ASSOCIATE EDITORS WALTER C. LANKENAU OTTO M. VONDRAK


CONTRIBUTING EDITORS MICHAEL C. BURKHART JAMES D. PORTERFIELD


COLUMNISTS


ALEXANDER B. CRAGHEAD THOMAS KELCEC GREG MONROE GEORGE M. SMERK WES VERNON


THE CLASSIC LACKAWANNA M.U. CARS WERE RETIRED FROM THE GLADSTONE BRANCH IN 1984, BUT DOES THE MODERN REPLACEMENT MAKE THIS STATION SCENE ANY LESS COMPELLING? GLADSTONE, N.J., MARCH 30, 2012. PHOTO BY OTTO M. VONDRAK


Lost in the moment?


I’VE ALWAYS LIKED THE HISTORY OF WORDS, and with the arrival of a new year, there is the chance to examine a really cool word, the name of this month, January. According to several dictionaries, it is named for the Roman god Janus, who had two faces, one looking backwards at the past, and one look- ing forwards towards the future. If railways had existed at the time of Caesar, I have no doubt Janus would have been the god of railfans. We’re always look- ing either backwards or forwards. We look back to what came before us, the distant past of railways we were born too late to see. We look back at the places we had a chance to visit, and to the opportunities that passed us by. With so many memories both good and bitter, there is a pervasive sense of loss that is hard to shake. Go to any slide show, for example, and listen to the dialogue. There is no question that someone in that room —maybe even most of that room — will express with a heavy sigh a lament for that which is no longer. It seems we all long for the era that has just passed us. All this pining for the past might make you think that railfans never look towards the future, but you’d be wrong. First, con- sider that the narrative of loss from the past drives speculation about future losses. How many times does a conversation about a rail- way shipper, a small rail company, or a humble branch line devolve into a specula- tion of how much time it has left on this planet? Then consider the endless amounts of gossip in the railfan world. When will the next order of big General Electric diesel lo- comotives arrive? When will the next mega- merger happen, and between which compa- nies? Will the Podunk Northern run its officer’s special again next year, and when and where and with who on board? One oddity of this backwards-forwards nature of the hobby is that we often do a dis- service to the present. For example, how


4 JANUARY 2014 • RAILFAN.COM


many rail operations today are worthy of be- ing witnessed or photographed, but are not being so, largely because they are not per- ceived to be imminently in danger of cessa- tion? Much of our historic photographic record of railways is from the last years of an operation, but few are from the halcyon pe- riod of their everyday existence. Our collec- tive memory of the California Zephyr, Nor- folk & Western steam locomotives, and the Milwaukee Road’s Pacific Extension are all born out of their endings. But while these large losses distracted us, how many cap- tured, say, everyday scenes at the yard? The lowly local going about its work? The mun- dane Amtrak train that calls every day at 2:38 p.m. whether we want it or not? The present, without the threat of imme- diate loss, may at times seem dull. Famil- iarity, as the old saw goes, breeds contempt. But the constant of time is change. Without a shadow of doubt, future railways will be bigger, stronger, and more important, but they will also be different, and in the differ- ence, there will be the loss of much of what we view as common and everyday in our pre- sent. Already we are on the cusp of the total loss of the traditonal wayside signal, the end-cab switcher, and the pole line. They were there every day so we never really no- ticed them, and they simply faded, slowly, while we were fixated on the big things. So as we enter the new year, and stand looking both forwards and back, I have a suggestion: even as we count the losses of the past, and look forward to the opportuni- ties of the future, never lose alertness about the here and now.


Alexander B. Craghead is a writer, photog- rapher,


watercolorist, and self-described “transportation geek” from Portland, Ore. You can reach out to Alex on our web site at www.railfan.com/departures.


DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING JOHN A. EARLEY


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RAILFAN & RAILROAD (ISSN 0163-7266) is published monthly by Carstens Publications, Inc., 108 Phil Hardin Road, Newton, New Jersey 07860. Phone 973/383-3355. Henry R. Carstens, Publisher; Phyllis M. Carstens, Secretary-Treasurer. Periodical Postage paid at Newton, NJ 07860 and additional mailing offices.


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